"We have seen cautiousness in Europe, but we haven't seen a slowdown in global mobile traffic or usage," CEO Hans Vestberg tells Barron's. To be sure, Vestberg didn't want to talk about Greece, Portugal or Spain. He was in San Francisco last week to discuss mobile Internet usage, which is exploding despite the sand grinding in the gears of the world's economy. The wireless Web is rapidly becoming a 21st century staple, driven by demand from consumers.

Vestberg, who predicts that there will be three billion smartphone users by 2017, says mobile-service subscriptions hit 6.2 billion during the first quarter, 170 million above December's total and led largely by China and India. He also predicts that 85% of the world's people will have at least third-generation mobile Internet coverage in five years, and 50% will be covered by high-speed fourth-generation networks. On top of that, Vestberg expects data traffic to grow a whopping 15 times over that span.

Of course, that is good news for the gear maker because the gonzo growth in data transmission requires wireless carriers to buy the latest, greatest stuff to handle the heavy loads. Ericsson's largest U.S. customers, wireless carriers such as AT&T and Sprint, have been leading the way in 4G deployments, especially in LTE, or Long Term Evolution, the preferred fourth-generation technology. Ericsson is a leader in LTE.

Anticipating and meeting demands on networks is tricky, expensive and requires vendors and customers to rely on one another heavily, observes AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. "Ericsson has been one of our big vendor bets, and it's been wildly successful," said Stephenson in an interview last week in Palo Alto.

The world's upgrade to 4G is a powerful trend, driven by demand from consumers, who have made mobile communications a priority, despite tough economic times, says Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum. "And whenever you have a change in technology, it is good for the infrastructure industry," he adds.

Gelblum and his colleague, Francois Meunier, are bullish on Ericsson, with an "overweight" recommendation and an 84 Swedish krona target on Ericsson's Stockholm-traded shares (ticker: ERICB.Sweden), which closed at SEK61.15 Friday. Ericsson's New York-traded American depositary receipts (ERIC) ended Friday at $8.56, up 3% on the week.

In addition to 4G, the two analysts see increased deployment of "small cells"—smaller network towers that boost data traffic capacity in already existing coverage areas—as another positive. And they expect 4G-related operating margins to swell over time. Says Gelblum: "LTE is just getting going."